It’s a zine and beverage today.

Now that I’ve slept on it I have some more thoughts about Dr. No. - Seeing a young Sean Connery is uncanny. - I didn’t care for Honey Ryder - I really liked Dr. No’s backstory. I always enjoy seeing how what were then recent historical events influenced pop culture.

Tonight's movie is Dr. No. Besides culture osmosis my only familiarity with the James Bond franchise is a couple of the Daniel Craig movies I've seen by accident.

We’re back for another book and beverage

Reading done. Time to do some writing and finally watch A Bridge Too Far. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRzm...

For today’s book and beverage I finally finished The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking work of historically-inspired fantasy. I think it just became one of my favorite novels.

Another book and beverage

Very excited to see my friend’s book out in the wild at last! This is a really fun #urbanfantasy inspired by professional wrestling. Kurtis has a clear love and understanding of the industry that is on display throughout the book.

If a person were to read just one Agatha Christie book in their life which one should it be?

This week’s book and beer have an unintentional theme.

Soniferous Aether xkcd.com/3238/

At long last I have fulfilled my ambition of sitting outside with a beer and a book. It is a marvelous day.

There are a lot of things I like about Invincible. My favorite part is how traumatized Mark is. Because of course being thrown through a building is going to affect him. There's a very human aspect that other superhero stories lack.

This was nice to find waiting for me when I got home. My signed copy of @brianmcclellan.bsky.social’s Mr. Styke arrived today!

Had an epiphany today in regards to my book’s magic system. It’s still a soft system but I finally figured out to rationalize it. This is going to help me flesh out a lot of characters.

I picked up Rally Cry by William R. Forstchen on a whim and I’m enjoying it so far! It’s written in exactly the style I was hoping for when I saw the cover.

I didn’t think Seth and Gunther had any beef. They’re both heels, right?

Aptos is a much better font than Calibri but it still doesn't replace a font with serifs.

Centimeter Wavelengths xkcd.com/3224/

I wish more authors explained this up front when they talk about observations in quantum physics. They way it is often presented makes it sound a too much like magic. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observe...

What I would do to be able to pet a ground sloth

Younger me would have been ecstatic about the idea of a Firefly reboot. Now that’s it’s a possibility I’m just not feeling it. Making it animated seems like a good choice I just think it’s going to be hard to live up to expectations.

Tonight's movie is Sisu while I work on some writing. I don't know much about this movie but it has been on my radar for a while. I think it's supposed to be a kind of WWII John Wick? www.imdb.com/title/tt1484...

I started reading Red Phoenix by Larry Bond since Bond helped Clancy with Red Storm Rising so much. The book has some interesting ideas and I don’t dislike it but it has some faults that are hard to ignore.

I appreciate the added production value in these PLE events like Elimination Chamber but I don’t think I like the format. I feel like we lose a lot of character work in these multi-participant matches.

Watching The Tank and I like it so far. It has great visuals but the plot leaves something to be desired. A lone tank wandering through the woods on a secret mission feels silly. Maybe if the writers had included a few half-tracks alongside it would seem more believable. m.imdb.com/title/tt3149...

For a very brief window, the state of the art in fire-making technology involved sulfuric acid, platinum wool & a steady stream of hydrogen, but no sparks. Let's talk about Döbereiner's lamp, invented 1823 & produced until about 1880. It starts with sulfuric acid in a jar!

I know the music theorists claim to have their reasons but I have never seen the utility in putting a note like F-flat on the page.

Post-Communist Transitions was actually a course we took abroad in Eastern Europe with my friend @urshanabi.bsky.social exactly ten years ago now. It was an incredible experience I wish I could repeat today.

- Austrogerman Culture - Inorganic Chemistry - Post-Communist Transitions - Aural Skills - Instrumental Analysis

I understand that the point of Rhiyo is that they’re opposites but I think they would be a lot better if they had a more unified entrance .

I’m finally watching All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and I’m blown away by how good it is.

My first bit of writing on the blog in a long time. This time it's a listicle of media I enjoyed last year. I'm always looking for new book recs if you have some you'd like to share! www.charles-m.com/2026/01/10/t...

Blacksmithing is so cool

Sometimes I pick a new audiobook based on the narrator. Other times I pick a book and I’m pleasantly surprised to have a familiar narrator. Either way the shift from one genre to the other can be jarring.

I still can’t decide how to feel about MDPI. Just how valid are the criticisms? Not having access to an academic library anymore makes finding sources difficult and MDPI comes up in my searches a lot.

The Sun Eater books make centuries of interstellar war sound fun. Sure Hadrian faces incomprehensible horrors and suffers immensely but he also gets a cool sword which probably makes up for all the rest of it.

Kicking myself for not starting to read the Black Company until now. This book is great! The opening does a great job of setting the tone and I like the conceit of the books being the company’s war diary.

The fun thing about sticking with band for close to two decades now is that as I’ve gotten older basically nothing has changed. No one is sure what measure we’re starting at, I’ve already forgotten what key we’re in, and for some reason percussion still isn’t ready. We make it all work anyway.

The new Glass Immortals novella is out today in ebook! Grab it from your favorite ebook store or direct from my website. amzn.to/3U0K4Pq

Partner’s niece and nephew are visiting and already I’ve seen enough Fortnight videos this morning to last a life time

Was planning to write some more tonight but Demon In White has got its hooks in me.

Deleted a chapter and started rewriting it tonight. It’s a nice feeling to see more clearly what my book needs after coming back to it.

the most common way readers determine a book's star rating is to write down every word the author has used and tally how many times each appears. for every word you've used more than five times, they will dock half a star. don't say i didn't warn you

An incredible book. I love the memoir format and the narrators voice fits the character perfectly.

The book was great. I can’t wait to see it on shelves one day!

Just downloaded @kurtiswothe.bsky.social's book! So excited to do this beta read!

Just finished reading "The Road To Dien Bien Phu." So much media on Vietnam focuses on western experiences it's refreshing to see how the other side managed. This book looks at how the Vietnamese built a state capable of confronting western powers. It's a fascinating book.

Playing Necesse and caught a Halffish...do I want to know what the other half is?

Watching Invicible and idk Mark is definitely way too impulsive but Cecil would probably get a lot more milage out of the heroes if he communicated with them better and maybe didn't put secret implants in their heads.